European Parliament Commission validates rules to suspend tariff benefits before signing the agreement on the 20th
Inta (acronym in English for the European Parliament’s International Trade Commission) issued a regulation on Monday (Dec 8, 2025) that allows the temporary suspension of tariff preferences for agricultural products imported from Mercosur countries when there is a negative impact on the European productive sector. The measure was voted with 27 votes in favor, 8 against and 7 abstentions.
According to the statement (in English – PDF – 65 kB), the EC (European Commission) will be obliged to open an investigation into the adoption of protective measures when the entry of products considered sensitive – such as beef or poultry – increases by 5% on average over 3 years. The current rule requires a 10% increase per year. MEPs also want to reduce the period for these investigations: from 6 to 3 months, and from 4 to 2 months in the case of sensitive items, allowing protection actions to be applied more quickly.
The approved text deals with the possibility of imposing an obligation of reciprocity. In this scenario, Mercosur countries would need to adopt production standards compatible with those required by the EU (European Union) for tariff preferences to be maintained.
The statement mentions that the European Union is Mercosur’s 2nd largest trading partner in goods, with exports of 57 billion euros in 2024. In services, it accounts for 1/4 of trade, with 29 billion euros exported to the region in 2023.
Gabriel Mato, permanent rapporteur for Mercosur, declared that there was “solid and balanced commitment” of political forces and said that the changes guarantee “Stronger protection for the agricultural sector and more reliable implementation framework”. He stated that he will defend the package in negotiations because he considers the changes “fair, effective and essential for a credible outcome”.
The President of the International Trade Commission, Bernd Lange, stated that Parliament is “listening to farmers” and classified the agreement as a way of demonstrating that, if producers suffer losses due to the EU-Mercosur treaty, “there will be protection”. He said the mechanism gives the Commission stricter monitoring and reduces the threshold for initiating investigations – a step that, according to him, could “open the way” for the signing and subsequent ratification of the treaty.
The approval comes on the eve of the date on which the EU-Mercosur agreement must be signed, on December 20th, and follows the European Union establishing an agricultural protection mechanism linked to the treaty.
The text approved on Monday (Dec 8) still needs the approval of the European Parliament. The vote in plenary must be held from December 15th to 18th. After that, negotiations will begin with the bloc’s governments on the final format of the legislation.
